The one thing you should never travel without is a great book. I have always loved to read and some of the best wanderlust often comes from the pages of travel books. Growing up I devoured mysteries and gripped the pages of thriller/horror books like Goosebumps and Fear Street. As I got older and my passion for traveling grew I read the travel classics like Heart of Darkness, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta and Seven Years in Tibet. These days you would be hard pressed to find me on any trip, or in my own bed for that matter, without a book or an Ibook that is, in my hand. Some of my biggest travel inspiration has come from the books I have read, each page fueling my wanderlust for nature and exploration. Here is a list curated by myself and a few other writers, bloggers and travel addicts of our favorite books about travel, nature and adventure.

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Believe it or not, the UK is one of the best places in the world to visit if you’re looking for an adventurous trip and some incredible views of natural landscapes. It might be a collection of small islands, but don’t be fooled by the compact size of this sovereign country. England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland all boast beautiful areas of natural beauty. Of course, it would take hours to list all of the fantastic places you can visit in this part of the world, so here’s a pick of the best locations for an adventurous nature trip in the UK.

​Africa is such a diverse and interesting continent, and one that is packed full of wonderful countries to explore. So many, in fact, it can be hard to pick just one. When it comes to African adventures, however, it’s kind of difficult to go wrong with Tanzania. Statistics compiled by Tanzania Invest tell us that 81% of the visitors to the country are those visiting for leisure and tourism purposes. If you’re sitting on the fence about exploring all that Tanzania has to offer, here are 5 reasons why you need to add this country to your bucket list.

1. One of the World's Most Iconic Mountains

​There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you take those last few steps and rise up to the summit of a mountain peak. When you are high above the world below, looking down at the countryside that holds the memory of your footsteps, and the mountainside that you just conquered. There is something about the mountain air, the solitude, the peacefulness of the high peaks that spurs our confidence, our strength and our resilience. We come down from the heights feeling stronger, braver and more apt for a challenge than when we had taken our first steps towards the ascent. That feeling of accomplishment stays with us for days, weeks and even years. It’s not just the personal satisfaction that makes climbing, trekking and hiking a great past time. There’s also the experience of seeing and being part of the natural world that surrounds you. Watching afternoon rains turn dry mountain sides into cascading waterfalls. Seeing birds awake in the misty morning fog before taking flight as the sun rises over a landscape of incredible beauty and watching animals in their natural elements unencumbered by human development or interaction.

We all have certain motivations and goals for heading out on vacation. For some of us it’s to see more of the world. For some it’s to experience a fun time with friends. For some it’s to relax. For almost everyone it’s to get away from the regular 9-5 working life that can constrict us if we’re not given a lengthy and wonderful break.

However, when was the last time a vacation left you speechless? You might find this question hard to answer. It’s not a particularly easy one to think of. Usually being left speechless happens when we’ve been wowed by some aesthetic beauty, or been exposed to something we haven’t for some time or ever at all. Our cognitive processes might not even fire in the same manner as we usually do when forming memories. So I ask again, when was the lat time a place left you speechless?

If you answered ‘I can’t remember’ to this question, you might have some real work to do. By work, I of course mean visiting a new destination that allows you to answer this question immediately. Consider visiting the following places and you’ll have plenty of these ideas to draw on: